SEO or PPC?

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), PPC (Pay Per Click) – digital marketing is an acronym-heavy minefield that businesses can spend precious resources attempting to decode. That’s why it’s helpful to understand the pros and cons of each marketing strategy before determining the one that’s right for you and your business objectives.

Although the most effective marketing plans integrate both strategies, maximising ROI (Return On Investment) depends on your understanding of the characteristics of each. Our roundup of digital marketing facts will help you on your way.

PPC is better for conversions; SEO is the biggest driver of traffic

It’s true that pay per click (PPC) advertising is a powerful conversion tool – the context-sensitive nature of the model sparks more clicks than its search engine optimisation (SEO) counterpart. However, SEO accounts for 88 per cent of all web traffic, while PPC generates a modest 12 per cent. These are important statistics to consider when deciding on a specific online marketing technique that is in line with your priorities.

PPC is easier to customise

It’s important that your online marketing techniques are agile enough to adapt to changing business needs, such as new customer subsets and products you’re interested in highlighting. PPC is the obvious winner in this department, allowing marketers to change a campaign’s keywords in moments. Conversely, SEO keywords are usually incorporated into titles, headings and unique quality content – a fact that makes implementing change a risky and labor-intensive affair.

PPC achieves a higher ranking in SERPS

Because paid ads create higher profits for search engines, PPC ads are displayed at the top and along the right hand side of a search page, boding well for the online visibility of your business. However, SEO’s capacity to draw long-tail traffic equates to greater longevity in terms of search.

Using SEO as your primary online marketing strategy demands extensive keyword research and a considered approach to quality content creation. But this means that nailing good SEO practices from the onset and maintaining these as your business evolves is likely to generate traffic and conversions over the long haul. Mastering good SEO can give you a ranking that’s consistently higher than your rivals – an attribute that gives you a powerful competitive edge.

If there is one point that online businesses must take away, it is that SEO and PPC both have a significant place in the digital marketing landscape. Dependent upon what you are trying to achieve online, your budget and your current business goals, SEO and PPC have different attributes that can help you achieve your goals.

In this fast pace digital world, it can be confusing and difficult to know what the best practice is; you might need to have a chat with an SEO or SEA expertwho would be able to provide you with a more guided outline of your next digital step.